The Department of Mass Communication Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka has won the hosting right for the 23rd International conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of African Council for Communication Education (ACCE), Nigeria Chapter.
According to a statement by the Head of Department Prof. Chinwe Uzochukwu, the conference will bring stakeholders together to tackle Nigeria’s security, food, health, environmental and economic crises.
The statement reads: “The ACCE is the biggest professional body that unites all communication stakeholders from different media outfits as well as scholars from distinct universities and polytechnics in Nigeria and other African countries.
“As the major umbrella that brings all communication stakeholders together in Nigeria, the ACCE has great influence on the output of mass media outfits, practitioners and scholars in Nigeria and the entire African continent.
“For decades, the ACCE has maintained the tradition of organising annual conference together with her Annual General Meeting (AGM) where the stakeholders converge to have cross-fertilization of ideas on dominant ideology which every media outfit is expected to subtly reflect within the ambit of Nigeria’s national interest.
“The ACCE over the years play significant roles towards delineating the dominant media ideology which becomes the focus of media scholars in teaching mass communication to prospective media practitioners and practitioners in the field.
“Having won the right to host the ACCE 2022 conference with the theme ‘communicating science, technology and innovation in times of economic distress, terror, and a global pandemic,’ and pre-conference research workshop focus as: ‘Mainstreaming child rights into the unbundled communication programmes of Nigerian Universities- prospects and challenges,’ we, the Department of Mass Communication Nnamdi Azikiwe, University Awka, are poised to have an enriching ACCE conference in 2022.”
He added: “The conference is primed to explore the place of science, technology and innovation including the emerging ones such as genomics, biotechnology, synthetic biology, Nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics; towards remedying Nigeria’s security, food, health, environmental and economic crises.
“The conference shall be a forum where communication stakeholders shall critically examine how advertising, broadcasting, films, journalism, new media, public relations as well as communication education with science, technology, and innovation to proffer remedial measures to the aforementioned myriad of challenges that confront the development of Nigeria and other African countries.
“The resources to execute the ACCE conferences robustly are usually enormous and that would prompt our conference organising committee led by Dr Obiorah Edogor to meet individuals and corporate entities to source for both the funds and other material resources to host the ACCE’s 23rd international conference/AGM tentatively slated for October 2022, at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State.
“To ensure the success of the conference, we as the host will be seeking for sponsorships or partnerships with relevant government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) as well as international governmental and non-governmental organisations.
“In a bid to contribute to the giant strides of our current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Okechukwu Charles Esimone’s Project200 goal, we the department of Mass Communication, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State; shall work assiduously to see that the ACCE’s 23rd International Conference/AGM will be exceptionally colourful and remarkable, in line with our consistent efforts to be the best media and communication studies centre in Africa.
“We specifically look forward to receiving significant assistances from various stakeholders of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State, especially our distinguished alumni members and parents of our students to queue into our dream to launch our department in the global catalogue of faculties or institutes reputed as centre of excellence in media and communication studies in the world.”
